Keep yourself steady on your feet, and your body well up when casting, as it gives more power to the muscles, and when a salmon is fairly hooked it will prevent your being nervous or striking too quick, but as I said before, rise your hand and keep the line taut; as the fish will often rise several times out of the water in succession when first pricked with the hook, on finding himself detained; when he runs keep the rod nearly perpendicular, as the spring of it will soon tire him out; if he is a good way off and makes a rush towards you, wind up your line quickly, keeping it taut at the same time, and moving backwards till he is near your own shore: if he rolls over in the water apply the gaff and lift him out, but if he is not regularly beat he will rush off again on seeing the gaff with great strength, give in he must at last by the gentle strain of the rod that is always upon him. He often gets sulky, and lies down on the bottom of the river, when it will be found difficult to start him again: a clearing ring let down the line on his nose will cause him to run, and when he does so, it is best to bear stronger upon him, as in so doing you have the best chance of quickly tiring and capturing him. I think it the best plan to lay the gaff under him, and gaff him in the gills, which prevents tearing or making a hole in the fish.
The Salmon reel should be made of the lightest and hardest material, not too much contracted, but a good width, that the line may be wound up evenly without incumbrance; a plain upright handle is much the safest when playing a fish, as the portable ones are apt to crack or snap off if they meet the least obstruction in the running out of the line; and the portable handle stands too far out, which catches the line almost every time it is drawn off or a cast given. Small reels may be made with portable handles, without any fear of their breaking, as the fish are small and can be managed easily.
The salmon line should be of silk and hair eight-plait or four-plait, eighty or a hundred yards long, and for small rivers, sixty yards for a sixteen feet rod. The casting line for clear waters should be half treble and half single gut, to suit grilse or small salmon flies in summer; and in the spring of the year when large flies are in use, good strong-twisted gut, three yards long, is what is necessary for a heavy reel line, particularly in large rivers, as the Shannon and the Bann in Ireland, and the Tweed in Scotland.
There are not three better Salmon Rivers in the world than the above, were the salmon allowed access into them during the summer months for the amusement of those great angling gentlemen who would visit them during that period, or even if there were but a few let up past the "cruives" or "cuts," that there might be a sprinkling for them to throw flies over. It would not matter to them what nets the fishermen along the shores of the estuaries used, as they only affect the "Cruives," or "Fixed Traps" built across the rivers, as of course less fish run into them, and there would be abundance of salmon and grilse go up the centre or deep part of the river, which the fishermen could not possibly reach.
These "Traps" are kept down all the summer, from the early spring till the end of August, at which period they are what is termed "lifted," and up run the spawning fish; and the great fly fishers now lay by their rods and tackle for that season, as fly fishing is prohibited when the salmon are spawning in the rivers. There is certainly a respite in the Tweed, when the nets are taken off at the end of the season for the accommodation of the fly fisher; and were it so in the Shannon and the Bann, there would be very great satisfaction in having a month or six weeks' fishing in these splendid rivers. They are certainly free throughout the summer to the fly fisher, but he might labour a whole day with his rod and fly without getting a rise, except by chance.
There will never be any good done until the "cruives" or "cuts" are removed off the rivers, unless the head landlord would make an agreement with the renter of the "cruive," and enforce it as a law,—to lift the "cruive" two days in the week, that there might be fish in the rivers for the accommodation of the great body of gentlemen anglers who make it their business to travel to these rivers to find amusement in Fly Fishing, at very great expense; although I do not know if even this would do,—it would be best by all means to remove them; and, independent of fair netting for the general supply at the mouths and estuaries, a Society of Anglers could rent the entire river, were the owner to meet them on liberal terms which no doubt he would, and this would prevent the destruction by degrees of the best breeding-fish in the river.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE SALMON,
AND ITS VARIETIES.
I desire merely to give some account of this beautiful fish for the information of my readers, the knowledge of which has come under my own notice, in the rivers of Ireland in particular, amongst the fishermen at their mouths, at the "cruives" or "cuts," and throughout my rambles along their banks.